A teenage girl by the name of Ayla Meadows is held against her will and experimented on by a crazed scientist. Although she manages to escape the horrors with the help of a sheriff and his group, she is forever haunted by the memories of her torture...
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"Bravery isn't when you go looking for trouble; bravery is when trouble comes looking for you." - P.I. Barrington
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𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒𝐈𝐗
The confirmation that Carl is still alive brings back the spark that lives inside of Ayla.
It's like she's been trapped inside a dark well for the past six months and she's finally managed to pull herself out. The loneliness she'd felt had nearly driven her mad but now that she knows her family is out there, things don't seem as bleak. Her life is not worthless. She was given a second chance, and she needs to take it.
It seems that her improved mood also brought some luck around with it.
Ayla comes across an abandoned town which doesn't seem to be too picked through. She's weary as she walks through it - almost expecting it to be a trap. However, after a couple more minutes of hesitant walking, she feels herself relaxing as no threats can be seen.
The town isn't too big, but it has all the essentials. There's a supermarket, a few restaurants, a pharmacy, a couple of clothes shops, and a video store. She heads to the supermarket first.
It's a regular supermarket, with shelves and tills everywhere. There is some evidence that people have been there before - shattered glass is spread across the floor and there are empty shelves where the canned foods should usually sit - but apart from that, it's not in a bad shape.
By this point, it's late April and the weather is starting to get warmer and warmer. It's not yet at the roasting temperatures that will make Ayla's skin practically drip with sweat, but it's still warm nonetheless - similar to air conditioned room on a boiling day.
The rising temperatures also mean that the animals have started to venture out from wherever they were hiding in the winter and she's finally been able to hunt again. Throughout the past couple of weeks she's managed to catch squirrel, rabbit, and when she's really lucky; deer.
The proteins and nutrients she's acquired from the regular healthy meals has allowed her to restore some of the muscle and fat she's lost, transforming her face from being gaunt to having a pretty fullness.
However, although she's managed to fill her stomach, nothing can stop her excitement when she peers down an aisle and spots chocolate. The girl practically sprints towards the delicious goodness and rips open the wrapper before stuffing her face. She eats, and eats, and eats, until she is so full, that she physically cannot eat anymore. The sick feeling in her stomach from too much sugar does nothing to stop the beaming smile from spreading across her face.
Ayla wanders around the supermarket some more and ends up finding a backpack which is in much better condition than the shitty one she's been carrying around for months. She empties everything that she had in her old bag and begins transferring it to the new one. It doesn't take long as it's not like there's much to transfer anyway. Just her flashlight, a couple of knives she'd found, a few bottles of water, and a few pieces of the squirrel meat she'd cooked the other night.
